LAKE ELSINORE — If, even in minor league baseball, a team follows its manager in going about its business, then the Lake Elsinore Storm have a long way to go.

If that manager can establish a quick learning curve, then the 2018 Storm roster could succeed quickly.

Thursday night, the Storm open their 25th season since moving from Palm Springs in 1993 with a 7:10 p.m. first pitch at Stockton. They’ll play three games there and four at Visalia before their April 12 home opener against Lancaster.

Edwin Rodriguez returns for his second season managing in the California League and is the most experienced of any of the 15 men who’ve skippered the Storm. He managed in the big leagues with the Florida Marlins in 2010-2011, and he managed Puerto Rico to the World Baseball Classic championship game last year.

“It’s always fun for me,” Rodriguez said Tuesday. “It could be here, in the big leagues, at the World Classic — it is fun.”

All that experience is a good thing, too, with the youth he’ll have this year. Lake Elsinore has six top prospects from a retooled Padres farm system — San Diego was recently named baseball’s No. 1 farm system by MLB Pipeline.

“We are very young, but then again, we are very, very talented,” Rodriguez said. “It’s just a matter of teaching them the right way.”

That will be key, as Lake Elsinore has missed qualifying for the California League playoff the last three seasons. It enters the 2018 season with a strong pitching rotation as well as some power in the everyday lineup.

Rodriguez said the team will open the season with a six-man rotation. Three of those starters are top prospects, including Cuban lefty Adrian Morejon, the No. 6 prospect in the organization who started 13 games last season between short-season and low-Class A ball.

Joining him from the top-30 prospect list will be right-hander David Bednar (No. 28) and Pedro Avila (No. 26), who set a single-game record last year at Fort Wayne (Ind.) of the Midwest League with a 17-strikeout game.

The rotation lines up, as of now, for Morejon to start the home opener.

The everyday lineup will feature some pop, led by No. 17 prospect Hudson Potts, the Padres’ first-round draft pick from 2016 who hit 20 home runs last year at Fort Wayne.

Potts said he learned a lot in his first full-season as a pro in the Midwest League.

“For me personally, it would be patience,” he said. “And as a team, it would be patience. That was just my first full season, and a lot of the guys’ first full season, so we all learned a lot.

“We struggled at the beginning of the year, and everything started clicking as a team toward the end of the year. That’s just patience all the way around.”

Jorge Ona, the No. 18 Padres prospect, and 20th-ranked Edward Oliveras, who came over the Toronto Blue Jays in Yangervis Solarte trade in January.

Ona hit .277 with 11 home runs last season at Fort Wayne; Oliveras hit 17 home runs last year between the Midwest League and the Florida State League.

“We’re going to be able to see these players growing up, on the field,” Rodriguez said.

Landon Negri is a freelancer. Previously, he covered local sports in the Inland Empire since 1996, primarily in the Temecula-Murrieta area, but also throughout the I.E. and into eastern Los Angeles County. He is a native to the I.E., having been born in Redlands, raised in Calimesa and having graduated from Yucaipa High School. He also attended Cal State Fullerton. While he covers all sports, he does concentrate on basketball, golf and football.